The Ramsey County Jail, located in downtown St. Paul, Minnesota, houses immigrant detainees on behalf of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. On an average day, the jail holds 50 to 70 ICE detainees, most of whom are Mexican nationals. The jail is also referred to as the Ramsey County Detention Center or the Ramsey County Correctional Facility.

Contact Information

Contacting the Facility

Address:

Ramsey County Jail
425 Grove Street
St. Paul, Minnesota 55101

Phone:

(651)266-9400

Contacting A Detainee

To speak to a detainee by phone, the inmate will have to call using phone inside the facility. The Ramsey County detention facility staff will not connect a caller directly to an inmate. Because detainees are not allowed free phone calls to family and friends, they must set up a phone account using money in their commissary account.

To deposit money in the person’s account, you can either visit the jail and deposit cash there, or you can deposit money online using www.inmatedeposits.com.

To visit the a person, go to the facility in downtown St. Paul at the following times:

Tuesdays and Thursdays: 1pm-3pm, 7pm-9pm

Sundays: 9am-11am and 1pm-3pm

To send mail to the person, use the following address:

Inmate Name and Alien Number
Ramsey County Jail
425 Grove Street
St. Paul, Minnesota 55101

Contacting Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)

Protesters Outside the Ramsey County Jail

ICE deportation officers manage immigration detainees’ cases at the Ramsey County Jail. Their office is located in Bloomington, Minnesota, at 2901 Metro Drive, Suite 100, Bloomington, Minnesota 55245. To contact an ICE officer, you can either visit the office in person between 8am and 4pm, or you can call (952)853-2550. Deportation officers are assigned to cases based on the immigrant detainee’s nationality and alien number, so have this information available before calling. The ICE officer who supervises detained cases at Ramsey County Correctional Facility is Field Office Director Scott R. Baniecke.

Getting Released

Immigration Bonds

Ramsey County ICE detainees can be sometimes be released on an immigration bond. In 2011, approximately 13% of detainees there bond out of ICE detention. You should start by finding out if ICE has set a bond for a person’s release. To find out, call the deportation office in Bloomington, Minnesota a (952)853-2550. Note: ICE often denies bond, even when a person is eligible for one. To discuss other ways of getting an immigration bond, consult with an immigration attorney.

To post bond, visit any ICE ERO Field Office in the United States. However, Ramsey detainees are usually released in the shortest amount of time when bond is posted in Bloomington, Minnesota:

7851 Metro Parkway
Bloomington, Minnesota 55425

Only U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents may post bond for an immigrant detainee.

Post-Release

The Bloomington ICE Field Office does not currently provide released detainees with transportation to a nearby bus station or airport. Families and friends of immigrant detainees should arrange to pick up the person directly from the facility.

The Removal Process

Immigrants detained at Ramsey County Jail by ICE should expect to be placed in removal proceedings. In these proceedings, ICE seeks to prove that a person is not entitled to live in the United States. Unless the person has been deported before, he or she will probably have the chance to be heard by an immigration judge. In removal hearings, the immigrant detainee is entitled to have a legal representative or attorney appear on his or her behalf.

Immigration Court

Ramsey County ICE detainees have their immigration cases heard at the the Bloomington Immigration Court, located at 7850 Metro Parkway, Suite 320, Bloomington, Minnesota 55425. Judge William J. Nickerson, Jr. is currently assigned to all detained cases in Minnesota

If a person is released from Ramsey County on an immigration bond, he or she should continue to attend all court hearings in Bloomington. His or her case will be moved to the non-detained docket at the Bloomington Immigration Court and may take several months to years to be completed.

Timeframe

Immigration detainees at Ramsey County may have to wait up to 3 weeks before seeing an immigration judge. The time it takes will depend on how long it takes ICE to file charging documents with the immigration court.

Facility Background

Ramsey County houses ICE detainees pursuant to an Intergovernmental Services Agreement (IGSA). The county makes $1.8 million per year in revenue from housing them. According to one ICE official, roughly 60% of Ramsey ICE detainees have a criminal record, while 40% do not. In 2009, the facility was audited by ICE and found to be “acceptable” according to all ICE detention standards, except for its protocol for handling hunger strikes.

In 2006, an Ecuadorian woman housed at Ramsey County Jail died of an undiagnosed brain infection, calling into question immigrant detainees’ access to medical care.

Nearby Facilities

If you are having difficulty locating someone at the Ramsey County Jail, you may want to try contacting any the following immigration detention centers: